Sunday, June 07, 2009

Op-Ed: Cyber Attacks Must Be Characterized as a Criminal Offense

Humanity has entered into an era of cyberwarfare. The word "cyber" only 60 years old and it corresponds to the name of Norbert Wiener. It involves new technologies and their progress. The word "war" is already known to mankind for thousands of years. A consistent definition of war has given Carl von Clausewitz in his book "On War" a sound perspective.

According to von Clausewitz, "War is an instrument of policy; it must inevitably have a political nature. Therefore, the conduct of wars in its main outlines is the very policies that replaced the stylus on the sword." He writes - "War is an act of violence intended to compel the enemy to fulfill our will.

To crush the enemy, we must match our efforts with the strength of his resistance; the latter represents the result of two non-factors: the amount of funds the enemy holds and the force of his will.

"War - as an act of violence, is understandable to all. The question is, can "cyberspace attacks" be called "violence"?

It turns out, they can, very simply and seriously. Violation of the normal functioning of government mechanisms is violence.

In modern times, where many of the processes are managed by computers, cyberspace is quite vulnerable.